Some guys go to bars, but I come here. Little hometown stores like this don't exist anymore.

LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- In its prime, Wings Hobby Shop was so packed with customers that you could barely step into the store during the month of December. Its six employees could tell you anything you wanted to know about model trains, military vehicles or vintage airplanes, and customers flocked here from all over the region.

But fewer children have the patience for craft kits that take hours to assemble, and the store's core customer base has been shrinking for years. After more than 67 years in business, Wings Hobby Shop is closing. "I'm hoping to pack up everything by the end of April, definitely by May," said owner Al Cicerchi.

"We peaked out, volume-wise, in 1995," he said. Business plummeted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and has been declining since the 2008-09 recession. "Little by little it started to go away, because we weren't getting any young people."

He used to be able to count on making enough during eight months of the year to get through the slower summer months. "Now it's flip-flopped. I'm lucky to get four good months, and the other eight are awful," he said.

Cicerchi and his aunt, Betsy Pufnock, are the only employees left, and the store is open only Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. "It's reality, and you have to look at it straight on," he said.

From model rockets to miniature train sets, Wings Hobby Shop appealed to history buffs, perfectionists and veterans more than parents buying for their children. The kind of people who weren't content just shaking the pieces out of the box and assembling what was there. Instead, they added their own paint, decals and details to make it more authentic and unique. Cicerchi used to display their finished pieces at his shop, keeping them behind glass because they were so fragile.

Aisles are filled with collectibles, military aircraft and vehicles, model cars and action figures, as well as the buildings and accessories that people use to create scenes around their train sets.

But except for the children who tag along with their parents and grandparents, "we don't see young people hardly at all," he said. "This started with Generation X, when computers and high-tech toys became the norm. We see some people buying building sets, but they don't stay with it very long."

"Society has evolved into a mode of instant gratification," he said. "You don't feel like making dinner? You go online and order a pizza." Customers want their pinewood derby cars pre-cut rather than have to do it themselves. "They want to have a collection to look at, but they don't want to build anything," he said.

Cicerchi doesn't know when Wings first opened or the name of the man who founded it. He bought the business from his father, Ron, a Marine who served in the Pacific during World War II. After the elder Cicerchi came home, he ran a punch press at Midland Steel until he lost his arm in a car accident and had to quit. He was a frequent customer at Wings, so when the original owner put the business up for sale in 1947, Cicerchi bought it. Ron Cicerchi retired in 1987.

Wings moved to its current space at 17112 Detroit Ave. between Create-A-Cake bakery and Hair Force beauty salon in 1965. Al Cicerchi concentrated on what was in the 3,000-square-foot store, never interested in creating a website or expanding online.

"I've been kicking this around for a couple of years," he said. "There's so little left" on the shelves, and even fewer people to sell it to. He tried to sell the business, but couldn't find a buyer. After 49 years behind the register, he, too, is ready to move on. "I want to retire." All three of his children live in the area, so he has five grandchildren he wants to spoil.

Hobby Castle, an even older Cleveland retailer that sold similar merchandise, closed its doors last February.

Dean Kohler, manager of Depot Train & Hobbyon Cleveland's West Side, said he had been going there there since he was 9 or 10. Although he is sad that Wings is closing, he said his business at 4342 W. 130th St. is still doing well. Even if sales isn't as strong as they used to be, he still gets a fair number of customers in their teens and 20s interested in trains, models and action figures.

He doesn't think the audience for building sets is shrinking, pointing out that the National Model Railroad Association is holding its annual convention here July 13 to 19, which is expected to draw thousands from around the world to the Cleveland Convention Center. "It also means that just about every train manufacturer in existence is going to be here as well," which local stores like him are hoping will boost their sales, too.

Longtime Wings customer Joe Maganja of Mentor still can't believe the store is closing. "Some guys go to bars, but I come here," he said. "Little hometown stores like this don't exist anymore."

"The nice thing about building a model is that you can research the history," he said, pointing to the shelves full of reference books and magazines about historical planes and warships. There's a HobbyTown USA store down the street from his house, but the staff isn't as knowledgeable and it isn't nearly the same, Maganja said.

Robert Dooner of University Heights still remembers discovering the store in the summer of 1967 and has been making regular pilgrimages from the East Side ever since. "I can't say that anybody's going to be surprised by this," but that doesn't make the store's demise any less upsetting, he said.

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